Open call by Western security experts: Allies should join the UK and expel undeclared contingents of Russian intelligence officers.

They are of course not going far enough, the influence networks and organised crime networks need to be rooted out as well.

Russia has such a history of breaking all the rules, intimidating most neighboring countries, and operating in areas just short of illegal – which are clearly immoral and unethical, that many of the countries of the world are saying “enough”.

Russia must realize it is exceeding the limits of tolerance, stop acting bellicose and become a mature actor, a great nation among great nations.

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The Russian Federation’s international aggression under Vladimir Putin’s leadership is unprecedented in the post-Cold War era. Russia’s recent track record includes the invasion of neighboring countries, massive bombings and killings of civilians, repeated violations of international borders, kidnapping of foreign citizens, highly belligerent disinformation campaigns, harassment of foreign diplomats, extensive cyber-attacks, and the first annexation of foreign territory by force in Europe since World War II.

With the ‘Salisbury poisoning’, the Kremlin has added yet another tool to its list of hostile tactics against Western democracies, which the UK government has declared an “unlawful use of force by the Russian state against the United Kingdom”. Russia’s use of a military-grade nerve agent in an attempted assassination on UK soil has been condemned by NATO allies as “the first offensive use of a nerve agent on Alliance territory since NATO’s foundation”. In reprisal for the incident, the British government has enacted new measures against the Russian Federation, including the expulsion of 23 “undeclared intelligence officers”.

Given the trajectory of Russian hostile activity and this repugnant offense against a NATO member state, we call upon NATO and EU allies to join our British friends and expel contingents of Russian intelligence officers from their soil.

Many allied states have experienced harassment by Russian diplomatic missions on their soil, which are disproportionately larger than their foreign counterparts due to harboring significant numbers of undeclared intelligence officers. These states are often concerned about retaliation by Russia should they attempt to crack down on these Russian intelligence nests on their territory. Mitigating this concern, a joint initiative by allies would effect considerable pressure on Moscow to stop its malicious pursuits. Such an initiative would show the Kremlin that an attack on one means an attack on all, and it would also allow smaller allied countries to limit Russian intelligence capabilities on their own soil without the fear of being singled out.

We believe that it is high time for Western governments to start taking seriously the threat posed by Russia and respond to the Kremlin’s increasingly audacious aggression with resolute diplomatic and counter-intelligence measures.